How does your CC group do childcare/who pays/etc? I think the policy of CC is that only children who are breastfeeding are allowed to be in the classroom with mom, but I've heard that some communities are more lax. How is it done in your community? If childcare (nursery) is provided, who pays for it and how do you pay? Do you pay up front for the entire year? Do you pay x amount per kid to the nursery worker? etc....

There's this 3rd grader kid who is in my child's CC Essentials class who sits in there with his mother and 4th grade sister. To us moms and to the tutor, it looks as though the mother is trying to get him in for a free class because he sits AT THE TABLE with all of us (even though we could REALLY use the additional room that his absence would allow). He participates way too much to be "just in there because he's sitting with his mother" and "can't go anywhere else". He's always piping up and interrupting and he's getting on my and everyone's last nerve. When the tutor calls on one of the student's to answer a question, he OFTEN raises his hand and sometimes just blabs out an answer (rarely accurate, but still answers and interrupts). It wouldn't be so annoying but I pay around $500 for my kid to be in the class as do all the other moms. It makes for a very awkward situation. The tutor tries to ignore him but the mother just allows it all. Any suggestions? Is this even allowed by CC? Mini-Resentment Budding, Crispy

Pilgrim's Progress (Bunyan) David Copperfield (Dickens) Bleak House (Dickens) Democracy in America (De Tocqueville) Shadow of the Almighty (Elliot)

anyone? :-)

Anyone losing with new Weight Watchers Beyond the Scale/Smartpoint/Oprah system? Thoughts?

Thank you, ALL ! Based on all this you've shared, I think I'll let my son charge $4 since most of my buyers are friends of ours

At the request of many friends who want to purchase our eggs, my son wants to start selling them. I don't know what to charge. I hear eggs are expensive nowadays in the stores, but I don't know what they sell for as I don't buy eggs/don't pay attention to that section. We have 22 hens and they free range all day (dawn to dusk) on our 11 acres. They are fed all natural feed (which they don't eat a heap of as they get a great deal of their nutrition from the yard/bugs/etc.). -- All this to say that they eat ALL natural. We put NO chemicals on our yard and we routinely feed them scraps from our all natural veggie garden. Eggs are mostly large with a few medium in size. My flock is comprised of large breed layers (Rhode Island Red, Delaware, Ancona, Barred Rock, etc.) What would you be a reasonable price to ask for a dozen of such free range eggs?

Sounds like my 9 year old. My son is into all those things you listed, but he's also newly into: worm composting, growing things (vegetable gardening), and rock polishing. We subscribed to superchargedscience.com and brainpop.com which he enjoys. Have you considered 4-H or BoyScouts? (we do neither, but these groups seem to keep a kid busy). Archery? Maybe start him on oboe where he gets to make reeds? Just throwing it ALL out there, aren't I ? :-) What about tinkering with instruments? fixing them? refurbishing them?

bump

A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis Liberating Losses (can't recall the author), but this book really helped a friend of mine who found the death of her spouse a relief after years of being in a bad/abusive (emotionally) relationship with him.

This is sure to clear up ANY confusion ............................................... (lol!) http://calorielab.com/news/2015/10/08/weight-watchers-pointsplus-formula/

bumparoooooo

some encouragement on the BF issue... I had severe pre-eclampsia also and had to remain in the hospital for a week after delivery to get it down, but we kept at nursing (I had to pump some in the hospital during the 4 days I was in the hospital and he was given formula during that time) but we ended up enjoying a successful nursing career. It took a bit longer for my milk to come in and for my supply to keep up -- for the first 3 months I wondered where his next meal was coming from as I always seemed empty/certainly no fullness. (He was my first child so my breasts were new to this). But, after about 3 months, we took off. I delivered him at 35 weeks since they had to take him early for BP issue. He weighed 6 lbs. 4 oz at birth. By 6 months he was in the 97% percentile for weight, so he got plenty of "groceries" (he was exclusively breastfed all that time except for the time I was in hospital for BP). Praying for all of these needs. Keep us posted!

I'm considering getting a Microsoft Lumia 950 Smartphone. Anyone used Microsoft (formerly Nokia) Lumia Smartphones? Please share your experience. Thanks!

Marital relations and exercising on Cycle Day 2 and 3. I have to take Ibuprofen on these two days for cramps, and it's been this way (having to take meds) for the 28 years Auntie has been paying me visits. But, mine are always exactly 28 days apart so at least I know when she'll drop in.

I'd never considered that I wasn't speaking to a real person on the LIVE CHAT, so when the PP suggested this, it got me more curious so I got on LIVE CHAT again to test it. Here's how it went a few minutes ago: Naveen S: Hi, my name is Naveen S. How may I help you? me: I am wondering if I'm the only person who has placed a Christmas card order on December 4th who hasn't received it (because it hasn't even shipped from you)? me: I had a lady tell me that she ordered a calendar from you four days ago and it arrived to her today. me: I ordered 12 days ago. (long pause, heard nothing from him so I asked "Hello?":) me: hello? Naveen S: I am sorry to hear that. Please kindly hold on the chat for a minute, meanwhile I look up the information. me: ok Naveen S: We are currently experiencing some slight delays with card orders due to unprecedented volume. We apologize for any delay and are working hard to get all orders produced and delivered to customers as soon as possible. As soon as your order ships you will receive a shipping confirmation email. In the meantime, we sincerely appreciate your patience and understanding. me: Can you find my order number? (I asked this to see if he had even looked me up at all -- he had my name --- and to test if he was even a real person ....got no reply to these questions).... Naveen S: We are experiencing a high volume of card orders with our production facility and greatly apologize for the delay with your order. Please do not worry about the arrival of your order. We are processing as quickly as we can the delayed orders and will expedite shipping at no cost to you so the orders arrive within our original processing and shipping estimates. When your order ships you will get notification that will include the tracking for the order. me: What is my order number? Naveen S: Again, we are sorry for the delay. We know how important it is for your Snapfish orders to arrive in a timely fashion during the holidays. We are doing everything possible to make sure this happens. We are thankful to for the order and pleased to serve you and hope that your shopping with us will continue in future also. me: Do you speak English? me: Can you give me a phone number that I can call tomorrow? Naveen S: If you would like to talk with someone on the phone, please call our phone number. Call 18005588224. Naveen S: We appreciate you being a wonderful member of Snapfish. Please take a moment to complete our Customer Satisfaction Survey once the chat has been closed, it is just three questions. Thank you. Thanks for chatting today. Goodbye and have a great day. Naveen S has disconnected. (he hung up on me! He posted the last 3 sentences within 1 second of each other then a second later, disconnected abruptly) So, out of this useless "chat", at least I got a phone number.....Oh well....enough on this subject......just frustrating. Thumbs down, Snapfish.

Thanks for this, all of you. I didn't see a phone number but I will look HARD for one and call first thing tomorrow and ask for a supervisor. Good idea. Craziness!

I placed my online order with SNAPFISH.com on Friday, December 4th after reading that they said that it would take "UP TO 5 business days" to process/send your order. Here it is TWELVE days later and my order hasn't even been processed much less sent. I've been on the ONLINE chat 4 times over the past 5 days and each time I get the reassurance that they're working as fast as possible (none of reps speak English very well) as they keep saying stuff like, "You don't need to worry since you will get your order within one week of placing order." They each say this even after I explain that I haven't gotten it remotely within one week of placing it! Another rep gave me the run around about how they had an incredibly high number of orders from the black friday/ cyber monday specials and I'm thinking to myself, , "If you can't HONOR your commitments to your customers, then maybe you shouldn't run and accept so many orders!" I have not been able to get any of the FOUR reps I've chatted with (via ONLINE CHAT) over the past week to tell me if I'm a typical case (if there are many people who placed orders Dec 4th who aren't getting their order or if there's something unique/wrong with my case? ) None of the four with whom I've chatted understands/types English very well. You can tell they have NO idea what is my order status and they all say the same pat answers that aren't even applicable to my questions. Here's today's CHAT: ME: Hello. I'm concerned about where my order is. It's order number 000000000000 and I placed this order online on December 4th. My name is _________. It was an order for sixty 4"x8" Christmas Cards. It's been much longer than the 5 business days that was advertised. Can you tell me 1.) do you indeed see that my order is showing up as placed 2.) if there was any problem with my payment 3.) when it will leave your facility ? SNAPFISH: You can be assured your order will arrive on time and within 1 week of placing the order. Me: I can't be assured of that because it has already been MUCH LONGER than 1 week of placing the order and I haven't received it and it hasn't even left your company according to the ORDER HISTORY page on the website under my account page where it says I'll be given tracking information when it ships. SNAPFISH: I apologize but we are working as as fast as we can to assure that your order arrives on schedule and in a timely fashion ME: Ok, so now that it hasn't arrived in "a timely fashion" at all, can you help me find out why? Do you see my order? Can you tell where it is in the process? Can you call someone in that department to check on it? SNAPFISH: All orders are done in order placed and are shipping within 3-5 days of receiving the order ME: Well that sounds very nice, but that's just the problem ---- THIS HASN'T HAPPENED. so now what? ______________ So, here's my plan, if I don't get a shipping confirmation/tracking number by tomorrow, then I'm just going to cancel it and go through Sam's Club to get NOT CHRISTMAS but Happy New Year's cards. never again will I order with them again! Anyone else having this issue? I never could get any of the four of them to tell me if my case was typical (if they're THAT behind) or not.

Lovin' these ideas! I've added several of these to my Christmas buggy on Amazon. Anyone else wanna add some ideas?

We love King of Tokyo, Ticket to Ride, Blokus, and Phase 10 especially, but would like to add some new ones. The age range in our family is 10 and up. I want to hear from you all! What is / are your family's favorite board game(s), and why? For which age range is it recommended?

Good info! Thanks all!

Please tell me about his/her personality / temperament / quirks / behavior / what you liked / what you didn't / etc. We're considering getting two pups(siblings/litter-mates) for Christmas. I know one can look much of this up on the internet, but I want to hear first-hand from owners. Thanks!

How often do you enjoy a "date night" with your husband? I want us to start this! Once a week would be nice, but that's pricey and employing sitters isn't free either. I'm thinking every other week. If you do this in your marriage, please share how you do it, how often, and your thoughts on it.

Thanks, All!

I'm not saying this is necessarily your kid's issue.... but I got so frustrated over math facts that, in July, I declared war on the matter. My son is 9 years old (4th grade). He can memorize stuff he's interested in with perfect gusto and proficiency. Knowing this, I declared in July (early July) that there would be absolutely NO screen-time (TV, Wii, etc.) until he had MASTERED THEM. I defined "mastered" as follows: being able to recite them VERBALLY and to write them quickly. I defined "quickly" as follows: the ability to recite one math fact every 2 seconds VERBALLY and the same math fact in less than 4 seconds WRITTEN. I also told him that he would be required to learn them both ways (8 + 4 = 12 AND 4 + 8 = 12). I bought Calcupak http://www.rainbowresource.com/proddtl.php?id=053045 as one tool to help us. I gave him the four decks of flashcards (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) since I was beyond done with drilling them ANYmore. And, whatdaya know! Here it is in late September and I'd say he's just about MASTERED all of them (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) them. His recitation is VERY good now and approaching the less than 2 second mark, and we're waiting on his WRITTEN to meet the less than 4 seconds criterion. He's at about 7 seconds on the written now and is getting faster and faster by the day because he is ON HIS HEAD to get his screen time back. Another caveat....I had him learn the math facts up to 20! ( I did this under the influence of Leigh Bortins, Classical Conversations founder/author), i.e. 20 x 1= 20 20 x 2 = 40 20 x 3 = 60 and, i.e. 20 + 15 = 35 20 + 11 = 31 20 + 20 = 40..... now, before anyone is tempted to say how cruel that was as if his inability to get the BIG digit facts wrong was what led to my frustration/declaration of war, let me clarify that not only was he totally not getting those biggies, but he wasn't getting the 9 - 4 or the 6 divided by 3 either !!!! It was ridiculous ! For him, it was about finding the right motivator.